This invention relates to acoustical imaging and, more specifically, relates to the production of color flow images based on the Doppler shift of ultrasonic signals.
All known color flow ultrasound imaging systems currently trade off the ability to segment wall motion from fluid flow (e.g., blood flow) against the ability to visualize rapid flow dynamics. Such segmentation requires large packet sizes which reduce the frame rate to the point that arterial flow dynamics can not be visualized. Extremely small packet sizes, such as 2 or 3 firings of an ultrasound transducer, allow good visualization of flow dynamics at the cost of little ability to suppress wall flash. This invention eliminates the compromise required by the known systems and enables visualization of rapid flow dynamics while enabling the image of flow regions to be segmented from the image of wall or tissue regions.